A great full walk through with commentary. Especially helpful if you're stuck on certain levels. Be sure to check out the full series on YouTube at Ashfbc's channel!

Hitman: Codename 47

Hitman: Codename 47 is the first iteration in the beloved Hitman franchise. How this game sparked such an enormous line of titles it’s hard to say. The graphics are blocky and unrefined, the controls are stiff and generally unresponsive, and the enemy AI swings between outright stupid to possessing superhuman sight and hearing as they immediately detect your supposedly stealthy ways. The game is punishing and requires an attention to detail that is so obtuse that I’m ashamed to admit I had to consult a walkthrough more than once because I had missed some small detail that was required to push the game forward. Is it even worth traversing through the slog to see the end of the game? I can’t tell. I can’t beat the damn thing and the frustration of the second to last level has caused me to walk away from this title and most likely not return. If you’re a fan of Hitman titles and have somehow missed this one it’s certainly worth a look. If you’re always late like I am you may want to skip this title and start your life with the franchise with its second installment Hitman 2: Silent Assassin. There is fun to be had in Codename 47 but the disparate game mechanics and the sudden spike in difficultly and expectation shatter the façade that through and through this is really a stealth game. If you’re a completionist looking to fill a gap in your game library go ahead and give Hitman: Codename 47 a spin. If you’re looking for deep gameplay or compelling narrative you should search elsewhere.

Pros: Agent 47 can feel very stealthy and powerful at times Planning and executing assassinations can be fun A very cool brief case that holds your sniper rifle

Cons: Lame story backed by atrocious voice acting Game rules that constantly get broken Mounting frustration the longer you try to complete the last few levels of the game

Score: 4/10﻿

Graphics:Hitman: Codename 47
has not aged well graphically.The low
polygon count and flat textures make the game world look drab and
unconvincing.You start off the game in
Hong Kong and the bustling city is decidedly void of any real character.This version of the city is filled with
copy-and-pasted buildings and using sight to mark your place on the map is
futile.You’ll be opening up your
in-game map every few steps just to make sure you’re still heading in the right
direction and with no mini map to consult the game forces you to break
immersion on a frequent basis.It’s easy
to get turned around in this game and instead of keeping you constantly engaged
in your environment, that isn’t much to look at to begin with, you’ll be
looking at a simulated green computer screen more than keeping your eye on your
surroundings and target. The game boasts a few different settings to explore as you make your way through the thin story but the transitions are jarring and unexpected. You start off in the densely packed cityscape of Hong Kong to be almost suddenly transported to the thick jungles of South America where the map opens up into a huge playground of trees and foliage. The South American maps are so full of absolutely nothing it’s strange the game would force you to play through multiple iterations of a landscape filled will nothing more than trees. When we think of assassins we believe them to be politically motivated, sneaking into buildings or homes and silently dispatching their marks and slipping out sight unseen. We typically don’t assume them to run around in the open jungle doing next to nothing. The environments are rendered well enough considering the game was released in 2000, but the short draw distance and flat textures don’t do much to make the world feel alive. One minute you’re navigating alleyways and corridors and the next you’re sprinting through a huge jungle map with no real indication of direction or purpose. The look of the game feels as if a group of young developers sat around and decided to just throw anything they could dream up at the game without really considering continuity of location or look. The low resolution character models just add to the otherwise uninspired visuals of the game. All human models look as though they’re made of LEGOs and move just as stiffly. Every face is a flat texture map slapped over mesh work but you’re generally not looking your targets in the face as you assassinate them. You are able to pick out different enemy types form a distance based on location, posture, and clothing and this does make the game feel a little more real. Guards stand at attention and swing their heads around as they survey the area. Citizens amble around the map largely getting in the way more than blending in and looking natural, wandering down alleyways that are devoid of anything that would indicate they belong there, and in the South American campaign you’ll wonder why you have to bring a golden idol to a group of natives living in stick huts the middle of the forest. The whole game world looks nearly static and forced in its visual presentation. Groups of guards just stand around and you’re forced to track the lone wanderers and watch their stilted walking animations as you plan your attack. There are a few nice touches such as the leaves of plants moving out of your way was you walk through them and the interiors of the buildings in the Hong Kong maps are filled with little details. You’ll actually stop and look at Agent 47 the first time you pass by a mirror. It’s those small touches that are appreciated but the limits of 2000’s technology are apparent. Everything looks flat, ugly, and cheap. Even the bright red dragon emblems of a certain enemy type are pixelated and gross viewed up close and unfortunately you have to get very close to your enemies to dispatch them. The visuals certainly work and there is a small amount of cohesion in overall thematics but up close the game world is just downright dreadful to look at. Clipping abounds in Hitman: Codename 47 so much that you’ll be convinced that Agent 47 is actually a ghost capable of passing through every wall and floor if you push him hard enough. Arms and legs break through the walls as your drag dead bodies out of sight and the rag-doll physics flings downed enemies around as if they’re filled with cotton balls. It looks absolutely absurd but it is enjoyable to watch the game fumble clumsily with the visuals. Thankfully the game world is constructed in such a way that the player never actually enters the world outside the playable arena, so even though the walls feel flimsy you’ll never actually break the game by falling through the floor or passing through the walls. Even though the game world feels solid enough in this regard it’s just so ugly and uninspired to navigate through. The low polygon count and bland textures give the game an overall cheap looking appearance and the weird transitions between environments make the game visuals feel amateurish and haphazard.

Sound:The sound of Hitman:
Codename 47 is generally hollow as enemy grunts and groans as their life force
drains from them sound unexpressive.Slitting the throat of a guard sounds more akin to their neck being
snapped as opposed to flesh separating from gristle.The sound effects don’t match the onscreen
action and lend an outright cartoonish feel to a game that generally takes itself
seriously and promotes a darker, more gristly, image.Gunshots don’t pack much punch and the volume
of the game is either inaudible or painfully loud.You will have to play around with the volume
settings to get things just right as the default settings make speech inaudible
but the music and sound effects overbearing.You must use the auditory cues the game doles out to get a mark on your
enemies and without leveling the sound just right the game is simply unplayable.It’s needless work for the player and really
detracts from the enjoyment of the game, staring at sliders in a menu as
opposed to becoming a silent killer. The voice acting in Codename
47 is so abysmal its little wonder the developers cranked up the cheap
music and sound effects. Agent 47 has a
voice that defies explanation as it settles somewhere between gruff and
cartoonish. There is no copious amount
of dialogue throughout the game so your ears won’t be assaulted much by Agent
47’s commentary. It’s also noteworthy to
mention the hackneyed accents of the NPCs especially in the Hong Kong
levels. The Asian accent is so goofy and
overdone it’s borderline racist. Since
Agent 47 is more about eliminating his target and less interested in actually
speaking to anyone you won’t be forced to listen to the NPCs much, but when you
have to it’s uncomfortable in a very human way.
There is a sort of narrative buried in the game but it’s generally
handled by text and the cut scenes are short so you won’t roll your eyes too
much as you listen to the actor of Agent 47 droll through his lines. Weapons make the main noises you’ll be subjected
to in the game and while they’re decent in sound you won’t be using them as
much as you may want to. If anything, as
you get further in the game, you’ll probably wish you could turn the in game
weapons on yourself and end the frustration.
Machine guns are loud and abrasive but there’s no real bass to them and
they sound more like plastic toys than harbingers of death. The only weapon that really satisfies is the
silenced pistol. The subtle “pew, pew”
of the bullet being muffled by the suppressor is what every would-be assassin
wants to hear. Silence in this game is
golden as guards will come rushing to your location if you simply open fire
with a semi-automatic Uzi and even though the silenced pistol is far less noisy
guards close enough can still hear it and the death cry of their fallen
comrade. The game constantly requires
you to keep a check on your noise levels but the distance the sound travels is
never really explained so you’re left to guessing what your most appropriate
move should be. The total package of
both the graphics and sound is really disappointing in execution and the
gameplay is unfortunately plagued by strange design choices as well.

Gameplay:Hitman: Codename 47
opens with a short tutorial level that glosses over the basics of the game but
not in any way that’s actually constructive.You wake up in a hospital cell to little fanfare and the game abruptly begins.The tutorials don’t even explain the button
map so if you’re playing on the PC you’ll either have to read the manual or
check the options menu to see exactly what you have to press to get anything
done.The controls work but they’re
clumsy and there are far too many keys mapped to perform well.This is a game that smacks of being developed
exclusively for the console market as you bash your keyboard and mouse around
moving Agent 47 through the game world.Abrupt is probably key throughout the entire game as your dumped into
locations and situations and it’s up to the player to figure out how to
approach their assigned tasks.In more
refined video games this mechanic is freeing and enjoyable, but in Codename 47 it’s bewildering,
aggravating, and pointless as the game doesn’t even give a helpful tip or tiny
bit of information to give the player that sense of freedom and choice. Strange design choices abound that make no real sense at
all.Unsheathing your knife for a silent
kill while standing immediately alerts your target of your presence; enter into
the crouched stealth mode and suddenly the same sound is completely undetectable.For a game that requires such attention to
the sightlines of enemies and nose generation you would think the developers
would take the time to record a less obvious sound effect for removing your
knife to let the player know that this
is the way they wanted it done.It is
fun to take down enemies while they’re prone and left alone from the watchful
eyes of their comrades and then drag the body out of sight of patrolling
guards, but the cheap execution of the main mechanic is utterly bizarre.The first few levels of the game are arguably the most
entertaining.Strip away the
disconcerting “Engrish” and Agent 47 is a panther in the halls, stalking his
victims and dispatching them with relative ease and grace.You must wear the outfit of those guards you
kill in order to infiltrate the deeper recesses of the enemy base
unnoticed.Pull out a gun, your knife,
or be caught dragging the body of your victim around and the alarm will be
raised.It’s an interesting way of
playing a game as you run from one target to the next, silently removing them,
and then trying to find a good hiding place for your gristly murders.But the overall mechanic is handled in such a
strange way that it becomes more of a chore than any actual fun and the
challenge of trying to dispatch your target is nearly nonexistent.Running through the map produces no effect so
guards will be nonplussed by some strange bald man with a barcode tattoo on his
neck running around like a manic.Nor
will a guard become suspicious if he sees you sneak up right behind him as you
move into position to remove him.Even
removing your crime boss main target is an effort in subterfuge that’s so
difficult to understand.Your main
target in Hong Kong can be killed by poisoning his food, but since the game
punishes you for killing innocent people it’s not immediately clear that you
have to kill an innocent waiter and steal his clothes in order to execute this.It’s in these moments where you try to play
by the rules only to have them disregarded does the game really crumble under
itself.Video games don’t have to mimic reality in order to be fun,
and the whole point of playing video games is to be removed from reality, to
don the appearance of someone not bound by the constrains of what we know.But Hitman:
Codename 47 breaks reality in such lopsided ways that the game feels
contrived and almost cobbled together rather than being seamless and making the
player feel stealthy and powerful.Find
a lone guard and take him down, steal his clothes, and every enemy in the game
suddenly believes that you belong where you are even though Agent 47 looks
completely out of place.Does it matter
that an enemy has seen you sneak around to his vulnerable blind side?No at all in Codename 47!Is it important
to steer clear of guards even when disguised so they don’t get a good look at
you and become suspicious?Nope, not in
this game universe!The breaks from
immersion and reality based around these shoddy game mechanics really detract
from the game and make it more of a memorization game of who to take out first
and last in order to progress “undetected”.The entire game play experience feels forced and most of the mechanics
feel empty and not well thought out.In
one situation you must infiltrate a brothel but try as you might you can’t get
in nor can you kill the guards as they almost immediately shoot you to
death.Why, doesn’t everyone interested
in “going upstairs” talk to the bar tender to get a flyer that’s used for
admission?Nearly everything in the game
is strange and counterintuitive and makes most of the game downright unfair and
problematic.The first few levels of the game are difficult but with a
little observation and planning you should be able to navigate through
them.This is not to say they’re easy,
but in comparison to the rest of the game they’re much less convoluted and more
manageable.The game does very little in
helping the player along and while something being difficult is generally what
makes video games fun, Codename 47
literally dumps the player into the game with no real explanation as to what
to do.You’re basically told to kill
some guy and then it’s up to you to figure out how to do it.There are no suggestions and much of the game
revolves around trial and error.You’ll
be restarting levels a lot as you
learn from past mistakes but without any real help from the game it’s
bothersome and infuriating as you run around with no idea what you’re doing or
what to do in order to get ahead. The game is terms of content is actually quite
short, spanning about 10 levels but you’ll quickly grow tired of each level as
you constantly have to restart. And the
selection of weapons at your disposal seems pointless since you’ll mostly rely
on your knife for undetected kills and your silenced pistol to take out one or
two enemies. There is no real point in opening
fire as Agent 47 will die rapidly from enemy gunfire and even Kevlar body armor
doesn’t do much to extend your life.
While the first few levels really require the utmost stealth to
complete, the second to last level demands that you subject Agent 47 to massive
amount of gunfire that quickly kill him.
It completely disregards the entire concept of a game that assumes you’re
an infiltrator and the way the game is set up it makes it nearly impossible for
you to complete the level. For a game
that touts itself as a stealth game, to require the player to act as Rambo disintegrates
the entirety of the game. It’s
disappointing to funnel so many hours into the campaign, learning how to be a
silent killer, for the game to suddenly turn around like that and become so
unfair that it becomes unplayable. I’d
like to know the full story of Agent 47 as seen through the lens of this game
but I simply cannot and that’s a real let down.

Final Thoughts: It’s difficult to understand how Hitman: Codename 47 sparked one of the most influential and
successful video game franchises. The
game feels more like a proof of concept than an actual game. Mechanics and environments are piece worked
together and have such strange rules of engagement that you’ll be scratching
your head in bewilderment more than feeling like a top assassin. The first half of the game embraces this
concept more than the last half as you stalk your prey, but once the game
forces you to mow down enemies and totally give up your position and get killed
almost immediately, the entire game comes crashing down. The story is paper thin and there’s no real meat or heft to
the narrative and what little bit does rise to the surface is contrived,
forced, and forgettable. The game is
more of a playground for you romp around in, experimenting with approaches to
see what works and what doesn’t, but as a game the rules and restrictions are
so bizarre that it’s really something quite unenjoyable. And since there’s no real investment in the
story the entire concept of eliminating these targets is lost. Sure they’re drug smugglers and generally bad
people, but why go through the trouble of experiencing the game and its
terrible controls and half-assed design choices when nothing is really
explained or feels satisfying? This is where the game simply falls flat on all
fronts. The graphics are drab and
boring, the sound is hollow with poor voice acting, and the game mechanics are
so convoluted that it becomes a drudge through something so completely not
fun. While forgiveness should be
bestowed on the first title of any franchise as there hasn’t been enough time
to really flesh out lore, place, purpose, etc., Hitman: Codename 47 is frustrating and pointless. If this was left as a proof of concept and
more time was given to smooth out all the mechanics and expectations of the
game Hitman: Codename 47 would be a
title I would highly recommend. As it
stands it’s more cumbersome than entertaining and you’ll be about as bald as
Agent 47 the longer you stay with this title and continue to rip out your hair
wondering why you’ve become such a masochist to keep attempting to push the
lame story along. If you’re looking to
fill in the story gaps that may be present in the other games in the line or
simply want to see how Agent 47 got his start then pick up the least expensive
copy of this game as you can find. If
you’re not at all interested and want a game that’s fun to play and more
fleshed out skip ahead to Hitman 2:
Silent Assassin and spare yourself the torture.